Open Thread #142

As “health care reform” in the U.S. staggers toward some sort of vote — after which the corporate lobbyists can instantly go to work chipping away at any good the final bill, if any, might do — let us reflect:

Journalists and historians will point at its passage as the moment Obama finally became president. When he finally discovered the awesome powers of the presidency (despite his party only having significant majorities in both houses of Congress.)

Of more immediate interest is the way Progressives — a term that has come to be synonymous with “the Democratic wing of the Democratic party,” in Howard Dean’s famous phrase — were totally ignored by the White House and by Dem “moderates.” Single-payer systems, a public option, and even a crummy expanison of Medicare, were, one by one, summarily rejected without aby serious consideration and despite being favored by large majorities of the American people.

Despite the renting of garments and gnashing of teeth by faux professor Glen Beck (taken down so wonderfully by comedian Jon Stewart this past week) and the Faux News-Limbaugh media, Progressives are the most ignored, powerless, and disenfranchised group in U.S. politics.

That’s my two cents — or, in current parlance, my “takeaway” from this.